An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches

CHAP. I. Prefatory. Who shall be Judge of Controversies, and of the Sense of Scripture; whether all the People, or who else.

CHAP. I. Prefatory. Who shall be Iudge of Controversies, and of the Sence of Scripture; whether all the People, or who else.

Sect. I. Experience assuring all Men, that we are born without actual Knowledge, and yet with Faculties made to Know, obliged to Learn, desiring Knowledge, needing it, and delighting in it, •o wonder if Men be inquisitive after the surest •nd easiest way to attain it; and if they be unwilling to be deceived, no wonder they love Truth as Truth, and hate Lies as Lies; though, being deceived, they hate that which is Truth, and love that which is a Lye.

Sect. I. EXperience assuring all Men, that we are born without actual Knowledg, and yet with Faculties made to Know, obliged to Learn, desi•ing Knowledg, needing it, and delighting in it, •o wonder if Men be inquisitive after the surest •nd easiest way to attain it; and if they be unwil•ing to be deceived, no wonder they love Truth as Truth, and hate Lyes as Lyes; though, being de•eived, they hate that which is Truth, and love that which is a Lye.

§. 2. Therefore the first Apprehensions of the mind do greatly tend to the introduction of those that follow, to make them such as shall agree with these: And here, 1. Sense, and 2. Education have the great advantage. 1. We exercise Sense before Reason, and therefore, at first, without the government of our own Reason, and this necessarily, strongly, and constantly, as the Brutes do. 2. And being therefore governed by the Reason of our Parents, we learn Knowledge of them, and from sensible Objects, ut drop by drop, by slow degrees; and Sense being strong, inclineth Children strongly to desire